Board Name: KAJD

Name: Kara

Age: 16 (17 in September 2004)

Location: England, UK

Time Zone: GMT

What's your Occupation? Full-time Student

Brief bio: I’m a Secondary School student who’s just finished taking her GCSE exams. I love reading – it’s one of my favourite pastimes along with computers. I have many series that I like, but none more than the Hardy Boys – especially the realm that Fan-Fiction has created for the boys. I live at home with my parents and my youngest of 3 brothers who is currently 19 (I am not only the baby of the family, but the only girl as well). In September I will begin my A-Levels studies in IT, Business and Economics, and Maths (my favourite subject).

When did you start reading the Hardy Boys? When I was about 12/13

Who started you reading the Hardy Boys? I was a bit of a late starter with the Hardy Boys (compared to some anyway). I was visiting my Grandparents one day and we’d gone to the nearest WH Smith. In there they had a Nancy Drew 3-in-1 Collection reduced to clear, and my mum got it for me to try. I really enjoyed the stories and sought them out at my local library. When I began to get low on reading material (having very nearly exhausted the library’s supply of Nancy Drew books), I gave the Hardy Boys books a try after having many times seen the advert inside the front covers of Nancy Drew. I instantly fell in love with the boys, and have been reading them ever since.

Who is your favourite character? JOE! JOE! JOE!!!! (Who else would there be?)

What attracts you to the Hardy Boys? There are 2 main things that attract me to the Hardy Boys. 1 is the relationship between them, and 2 is the fact that they’re good clean mysteries that don’t need to be worked at – you can relax with a Hardy Boys book and let the words flow off the page.

What is your favourite Hardy Boys Series? The Casefiles

What is your favourite Hardy Boys Book? Brother Against Brother (although the ending’s terrible the rest of it is great)

What is your favourite Hardy Boys moment? There are many, but I particularly like the injury scenes in Foul Play

Which of the Hardy Boys books are you familiar with and/or own? I’m familiar with quite a few of the books, but don’t actually own that many (only 4). Unfortunately, by the time I got into the series, they were mostly out of print over here so I get most of my reads from the local libraries

Anything else you would like to add? Yes. For the past 2 years I have been studying from home due to long-term illnesses. Even before that though, I always felt the odd one out, as though I didn’t belong; especially as I was missing school left right and centre and felt as though I had to grow up faster than most. When I was in school I was just trying to blend into the background trying my best not to draw any more attention to myself. I also had to be severely self-disciplined to be able to match my peers’ schoolwork stride by stride. Since joining the HDA community in January 2004, for the first time I feel as though I truly belong, that I’m not judged or made to stand out for my body’s faults instead of who I am. Up until now I’ve only ever had a couple of really good friends who’ve looked beyond that; most either avoided me because of my illnesses or over compensated with false kindness and smothering whilst keeping an air of distance about themselves. No one at HDA has done that, here I feel as though I can truly give my opinions without them being clouded by preconceptions of whom I’m thought to be and for that I’d like to thank all of you.